Tagg: recruitment

Create a team of students, that on a yearly contract interact in social media with prospective students. Groningenlife is a digital Magazine (website) that show real student Life. Today 28 students are involved and the projectleader is also a student. And they all get paid!

Check it out:

www.groningenlife.com

2. Videos co-created by students and teachers

Encourage students to produce videos about their ideas on how to change things in the future ( pay-off from their motto ” share your talent. Move the world.”) as part of their courses. The films will be presented together on the webbsite and student can vote and nominate the best ideas.

3. Student to student recruitment in international recruitment

A part from an Office with six staff members, Hanze University has a student team with six students; a general coordinator, an online officer EEU, an online officer China, an online coordinator social media, a general assistans and a follow up coordinator. They are in charge of follow up of intro-mails, promotion calls or chatsessions, telephone calls, application reminders and responding in different socialmedia channels.

In six months they reached 1800 prospective students and personally chatted with 300 of them.

Right now I am on the plane from Kiev back to Copenhagen. This morning we had a very informative meeting at the Swedish Embassy in Kiev. It was interesting to hear that the Embassy in the Ukraine does a lot to promote Sweden and Swedish Higher Education in particular. We were happy to hear that the Embassy is willing to support us next time we visit Ukraine. It would be especially interesting to involve a few more Swedish institutions (and maybe even companies) in promotion activities in Ukraine. Next time we will for sure invest more time in exploring possibilities in the second largest city, Donetsk.
I left the Ukraine very satisfied, both professionally and personally. We gathered a lot of information about the student market (motives, interest, mobility obstacles, etc.) and started a network with agencies and the Swedish Embassy. We also spoke to a number of universities that are interested in cooperation with Malmö University. For successful recruitment of students from Ukraine, partnerships are crucial. So I do hope that this visit will lead to more than just applications for our programmes and courses. On top of this, for me personally, it was great to meet a lot of new people from all over the world and understand Ukrainian culture a little bit better. I absolutely like Ukraine and look forward to going back at some point!
Whenever I travel to other countries outside the EU for recruitment purposes, it’s always confronting to see the differences between rich and poor. And the differences can be seen everywhere, no matter if it’s India, China, Russia or Ukraine. In Ukraine for example, still 25% of the population lives under the poverty line. Due to the limited resources for scholarships (from both the government and Swedish businesses), we mainly focus on students that can finance their studies themselves. This might sound unfair, because these students are not per definition the most talented students. However, these students will be able to further develop their motherland once they have finished their education. Indirectly these educated students can help their countries to fight poverty. This is what really motivates me in my work as a marketer/recruiter! It’s up to all of us to give these students the tools that they need once they decide to go back home.
I am now looking forward for two nights of sleep in my own bed. Then it’s off to Ottawa.

My name is Roger Senden. I work at the Vice-Chancellor’s Office, where my main task is to set up international marketing and recruitment for Malmö University. I started working for Malmö University in spring 2010. I am from the Netherlands and that’s also the reason why I write my blog in English.

Since tuition fees have been introduced this year, the interest in Sweden as a study destination has dramatically dropped. Last year the leadership of the university decided to work on international marketing and recruitment in order to make sure that an international class room can be maintained.
In June 2010, 7 target countries have been set for active marketing and recruitment: Bulgaria, China Germany, India, Poland, Romania, and Russia. This year one more country has been added: Ukraine. The main reasons to add Ukraine as a target country are the interest in Malmö University’s programmes this year (10% of the fee-paying students is Ukrainian) and the easy access to the Ukrainian student market.
Every country needs a different approach. In some countries education fairs have a lot of impact (e.g. Romania and Bulgaria). In other countries working with educational consultants (agents) is crucial, e.g. in India and China. But in all countries we try to use several tools (incl. web) in order to recruit students.
Currently I am on my way to Kiev and Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, together with Katherina Korsun. She is one of our Ukrainian Master’s students (Global Political Studies). This trip to Ukraine has three main goals. One is to participate in an education fair in Kiev for three days, with an expected 10-15.000 visitors. During the trip we will also meet with three agents to discuss a possible cooperation. Finally this trip is important to get a better understanding of the student market in Ukraine. We will for example also visit the Swedish Embassy in Ukraine.
After this 6 day visit to Ukraine I will continue my journey to Canada. This journey has a complete different reason. Malmö University is a member of Study Destination Sweden. This is a cooperation of Swedish universities that aims to share knowledge and experiences and wants to develop a strategy to promote Sweden jointly as a study destination. In Canada universities have been working together through what is called EduCanada. They have been successful in branding the country as a study destination. Study Destination Sweden wants to learn from their experiences. That’s why I have been invited to represent the project, together with colleagues from the Swedish Institute, West University and the Stockholm School of Economics. Besides the main office of EduCanada in Ottawa, we will visit McGill University (Montreal), Bishop’s University (Quebec), University of Western Ontario (London), Ryerson University (Toronto), and CMEC, which is the counsel of Education Ministers in Canada. Most likely I will also visit York University, which is (as Ryerson University) on of Malmö’s partner universities.
During the next three weeks I will try to give you a better idea of the work that me and my colleagues do when we are abroad.